When you look at the generation history of shows, often the burning drive mentioned is a Plextor. I chose it also because it is marketed at Newegg and others as a retail package, with software and cable. OEM drives are bare bones, cheaper,but reccomended as better for experts. Finally, I love a deal and it was on sale with two rebates/discounts and free shipping.
As to audio quality ribbon cable...the Plextor and others require an 80 conductor cable. My Dell had a 40, so I replaced it with the one in the Plextor package. Cables can also support 'cable select' which is one of the jumper choices on the drive. This is discussed in the article on CNET.
Software....the OEM drives come without and I did't have any DVD burning software. The Plextor bundle included:
Plex Tools Professional
Roxio 7 Basic DVD Edition
Sonic CinePlayer
The install was relatively easy. The fricking plastic front on the computer was the major obstacle. At first, my computer didn't recognize the old CD burner, but after a couple of restarts and doodling with the position of the ribbon cable, everything was fine.